Prison Break and Heist

The furry criminal was transported to the Moorak Dul correctional facility on Xandar.

In every prison the half-sized mammal had arrived thus far, he got a hell of a welcome. They always pick on the little ones. Devoid of his beloved weapons, the feisty raccoon would put his claws, teeth and surprisingly strong muscles to work to disfigure a few inmates and earn some respect.

This time, there wasn't much of a fight. He figured that he had built himself quite a reputation by now. If he had paid more attention, he would have noticed a few individuals who broke up the skirmish by giving subtle signs to the initiators of the harassment. However, his disappointment about his latest failure made him feel depressed and less vigilant.

Somehow, the little piece of wood, the only thing from the robbery he had managed to keep, gave him comfort. He had kept it in his mouth all the time and got used to its taste. After being installed in jail, he put the piece away in a makeshift pocket of his prison uniform. He had noticed that the wooden entity had changed shape, but thought that it must have been deformed while he had hidden it between his molars.

That same day, he kind of befriended a group of three criminals who didn't seem too stupid, even by Rocket's standards. The guy who did most of the talking was a Xandarian named Bardan. He had a tough appearance; possibly ex-Corps. The man didn't sound like how he looked though, talking with a somewhat posh accent, speaking in literary sentences and intermixing his cheerful monologues with humour that the rest didn't seem to get.

The flarknard is a talking book, Rocket thought.

The second man was a tall, green guy; hairless, with an almost nose-less face. Bardan called him 'Mandos'. Every time Bardan cracked a joke, he gave Mandos a friendly punch on the shoulder and laughed like a girl. Mandos didn't respond to the punches. The beanstalk hardly seemed to respond to anything, although he looked attentive. Probably he was a Mandos from planet Mand and nobody knew his name, so that's why Bardan had christened the man 'Mandos'.

The third member had the lovely name Rowlr Zas, a Mephitisoid female. Mephitisoids are a humanoid race with some mammalian properties, such as fur, cat-like ears and a wonderful fluffy tail. Rocket thought she was the hottest thing he'd ever seen and had a hard time keeping his eyes from her. Whenever he directed his attention to her, which he did a lot, he tried to flirt. Albeit the good-looking lady acted aloof and hardly seemed to notice the furry Casanova, which made him pretty frustrated. Little did he know the skunk-like woman was playing the furry mammal with her pheromones.

Rocket had an escape plan. He always did. As a former security officer, he knew where to look. From the moment a prison came in sight, he paid attention to useful little details and stored them in his almost photographic memory. By the time he had been admitted, showered and redressed, he had the basic layout map of the prison in his head, knew the locations of detection equipment, noticed where keys were kept, and whatever else could come in handy. Generally, he would spend a few days looking around, checking out the local crowd, perfecting his plan and then making contact with a select company he could trust - as far as you can trust someone in a prison. If he could escape by his own, that would be his preferred option; but most plans required a small team.

Now he had hooked up with this trio the first day he got in. The gang members used code language to signal to the new inmate that they were planning to escape and sought a fourth crewmember.

Rocket should have been suspicious. The first day was too soon and he wasn't the one who was taking the initiative. Two bad signs. Only this time, he was a bit too eager to get out and make things right. Like an even bigger heist to ease the pain on his losses. And boy, would he like to bang the Mephitisoid!

It seemed like Bardan had been babbling for hours when he finally changed the subject. He told that Mandos had interesting info and gave him the word. In a strange and outlandish voice, the towering guy explained, "Nova Research Centre. Experimental graviton generator. Very valuable."

Bardan added, "I already have buyers lined up. This is top of the bill military technology. They are willing to pay through the nose."

The ring-tailed bandit was very much interested, which he showed tactically by looking only moderately interested. It sounded almost too good to be true. He didn't even have to leave the planet to get there. He could practically walk over and take the commodity.

With help of a corrupt guard and Rocket's ingenuity, the escape went so smoothly that it's hardly worth mentioning.

After they got out, the raccoon could stay in a hideout with his pals. His new associates even managed to get him his suit and other belongings back.

The next day, they started to plan how to hit the research centre. Not surprisingly, it was heavily guarded and proved a tough challenge, even for someone with Rocket's capacities. Luckily, they found an insider who could provide strategic information. The furred hacker established a remote connection to the centre's computer network and performed a few test runs. The security system was not impermeable to his skills. Bardan had resources who were willing to finance the whole setup; everything looked just dandy.

And yes, Rocket managed to get to sleep with the Mephitisoid, who played hard to get; but well, who could resist such a handsome raccoon? He didn't get seconds though. He suspected that she wanted to give him an incentive to be loyal to the group. As it would turn out, her doubts about her furry lover's trustworthiness were not entirely misguided.

During spare hours, he did some thinking. He could not trust his surgeon anymore. Getting a state of the art protective suit for himself wouldn't be a bad idea. He believed that his fellows were able to get the job done properly, but that's where his trust ended. So he concocted a rip deal. He had to be the one who held on to all key components. He devised an alternative escape route, only known to him, to leave the research centre. It would be best if the rest were arrested, to keep them from bad ideas such as tracking him down and being all revengeful.

After a few weeks of developing and testing the plan, the group was confident enough to put it to practice. Bardan led them through endless rounds of repeating facts and memorizing.

"Mandos, your part."

"Get graviton emitter."

"Rocket, what do you get?"

The raccoon let out a long sigh. He hated these sessions. He had it all stored in his memory right from the start. On the other hand, he needed to play the game to prevent suspicion. "Schematics of one: the emitter; two: the sensor network; three: the controller."

"Green man, why do we need the hardware?"

"Can not be reproduced. Needed for analysis."

"Furry friend, why the schematics?"

"OK, fer the last time. Without schematics, the emitter is useless. Ya need the sensor network and the controller software in a suit to make the emitter generate a counter-G-force-field."

"And the schematics of the emitter are needed for reverse engineering the hardware," Rowlr Zas added.

"Thanks hun, I could've come up with that myself." He cuddled the Mephitisoid who sat next to him and kissed her cheek. She smiled at him and looked very seductive. The untrustworthy suitor felt regret about his intention to betray the sweet looking woman. Nevertheless, he decided to stick with his plan. Plenty of women to go around once I'm indestructible, he promised himself.

The operation went as smoothly as planned. Rowlr Zas was a natural in confusing and taking out the guards. Rocket compromised the security computer. The plan even included the usage of a mobile portal system to get to the proper locations within the building. The furry hacker downloaded the schematics. Mandos stole the emitter from the vault. The cunning raccoon then used a switch trick to rob the green giant of the emitter without raising suspicion. He triggered a false alarm to get the gang running to an emergency exit, while he sneaked off through an alternate route to the outside. None of his mates saw the dissident bandit leave, being too busy to save themselves. To no avail, because some security guards turned out to be in a place where they shouldn't have been if the plan hadn't been compromised.

The victorious robber ran to his ship, hidden on a strategic location, and headed back to Kree space where he set up a meeting with Lom-Dag, his tailor-engineer.